By Danton Remoto Remote Control www.abs-cbnnews.com 29 October 2010 After May 10,2010, when Ang Ladlad Party List ran on sheer adrenalin and campaigned for only three weeks –when the other party lists campaigned for three months – and lost, I quietly returned to part-time teaching. But let me tell you the odyssey of finding a part-time teaching job. In all humility, I took the grammar and writing test in a State University so I could teach part-time in its Department of English and Comparative Literature. But after a month and no word came from its esteemed chairperson, I called her up and asked about my chances. “Well, you passed the grammar and writing test!” she enthused, for which I thanked her. “But we don’t have a slot for you as a teacher.” “I’m only applying for a part-time teaching position,” I said. “Yes, we have no slots for full-time teachers.” I repeated my answer and she repeated hers. Now, I do not know why some state universities have English Department chairpersons wit...

Danton Remoto Remote Control Ang Ladlad says ‘no’ to separate restrooms I am back after a short absence, since I have retired from teaching and now working for an international development organization. I would like to publicize Ang Ladlad’s stand on separate toilets, an ordinance filed by a Provincial Board Member in Cebu. Cebu Provincial Board Member, Arleigh Sitoy, recently filed an ordinance requiring business establishments in the province to designate a separate restroom exclusively for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTs). The ordinance's explanatory note says, "Separate restroom is the solution to end the confusion of what public restroom should a member of the LGBT avail for them to feel safe, comfortable and convenient wherein there are only male and female comfort rooms." While Ang Ladlad lauds and appreciates the intent of Mr. Sitoy to address the needs and concerns of LGBTs, its members, especially from the Cebu chapter, have expressed strong rese...

Editorial Malaya 26 July 2010 PRESIDENT Aquino’s State of the Nation Address is expected to focus on the problems inherited from the previous administration, especially the anomalies pulled off in the last months of Gloria Arroyo’s nine years of misrule. That kind of stock-taking is an absolute necessity so Aquino can lay down the baseline from which to build on in the next six years. Aquino’s team, however, has been on the job less than two months. The time might be enough to uncover the more egregious last-minute fast breaks, but it would take much longer to determine the depth and breadth of corruption that attended the unlamented Arroyo administration. And we are not talking yet of the failed programs and policies which must be discarded if Aquino is to redeem his promise of a brighter future for the nation. But first things first. The people should not entertain overly high expectations from the new administration. An administration does not assume office with a blank sheet. The c...

Rivers run through it - REMOTE CONTROL | DANTON REMOTO REMOTE CONTROL | DANTON REMOTO Posted at 07/23/2010 7:17 PM | Updated as of 07/23/2010 7:18 PM www.abs-cbnnews.com Ilustrado means the enlightened ones, the indios during the dying days of the Spanish regime who could afford a European education. And in the true tradition of all colonials, they soaked up the education, filtered it, and then used it as a weapon against their colonial masters. They were the seeds that later bore fruit in the Philippine revolution of 1896. The modern ilustrado is the subject matter, point of departure, and even the writer of this whirligig of a novel. Winner of the Palanca Grand Prize for the Novel and the estimable Man Asian Literary Prize for the Asian Novel of the Year, this much-awaited book generally lives up to the raft of accolades and reviews it has received. Full disclosure: the author, Miguel Syjuco, was my former student at the Ateneo de Manila University. I still remember well his hair dye...

BY Danton Remoto Remote Control www.abs-cbnnews.com (Excerpts from a novel) The Magic Box I was four years old, sleeping soundly on my parents’ big bed. One morning, my mother woke me up, brought me to the bathroom where she washed my face, and made me rinse my mouth. When we returned to their room, she said. “This is the day I told you about. The man with the magic black box will arrive.” And so she proceeded to dress me up. She pulled my new white, short-sleeved polo shirt from its plastic bag, and shook it in the morning air. Against my skin the shirt was crisp and clean. Mama made me wear my new khaki shorts. She buttoned up my shirt, and then knotted a green tie under my stiff collar. “Now, you look so formal already,” she said. “When the man stands before his magic black box and disappears under the strip of black cloth, you should give him your widest smile.” Still groggy from sleep, I just nodded lazily. Whiteness, there was whiteness everywhere! The walls and ceilings of our h...

This comprehensive article by a crack team of reporters from GMA 7 captures well the people around and behind the rise of Noynoy Aquino to the presidency. And it correctly includes ANG LADLAD Party List as one of the groups that supported Noynoy. Let it be said that in its first political endorsement, ANG LADLAD correctly read the temper of the times, and endorsed Benigno Aquino III for President and Jejomar Binay for Vice-President. Both guys, as we know now, won. Watch us make our moves in the 2013 elections. *** Who's who in Noynoy's rise to the presidency 06/23/2010 | 06:24 PM www.gmanews.tv A ragtag army of volunteers - many veterans from the glorious fights against Marcos, Erap and Arroyo, but perhaps millions more electrified by the emotional days of Cory Aquino's wake and funeral - delivered the presidency to Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III with their tireless campaigning. Now with Noynoy at the cusp of assuming power, the action around the president-elect has...

BY Danton Remoto | Remote Control Posted at 06/25/2010 10:50 PM | Updated as of 06/25/2010 10:50 PM www.abs-cbnnews.com This is the title of Fr. Joseph V. Landy’s small and sensible book for those who want to teach. The Jesuit teacher lives up to the subtitle of this book — The Art of Being Interesting — by giving us a book filled with pearls to be cast in the classroom. The nine chapters are concise and written in a tone almost conversational, as if a wise, old man is giving a pep talk to a young person during College Placement Day. It is also freighted with honesty. “Why teach? Many answers are possible, but one spells death to a career in the classroom. If your overriding motive is money, go elsewhere.” How true, how true. When we hold our college reunions, my college classmates at Ateneo would tell me how youthful I still looked, with a full head of black hair and hardly discernible lines on my face. I would cackle with laughter and tell them that, indeed, God is fair. “I may look ...